Saturday, April 30, 2011

BY-ELECTION IN TE TAI TOKERAU TO LAUNCH MANA PARTY

Just left the Marae. Lot's of energy for a new party. Hone is going back to Te Tai Tokerau for a mandate for his new party. Expect to see Annette Sykes as number two. Matt McCarten is Campaign Director, 500 signatures started on the day. Expect to see, Nandor, Sue Bradford and John Minto involved.

The clever 'Hone Heke' financial transaction tax was well received.

The Speaker can turn down a request for a byelection if it is within 6 months of the general election, meaning the Speaker should go ahead asap.

6 weeks of media exposure is exactly what the country needs to hear the vision Hone has to articulate to an angry electorate who feel disconnected from the current regime. He needs 85 000 party votes to win 5 MPs and change the Parliamentary math.

This is a math some mainstream media didn't seem to now, hence their lack of appreciation for the political realities that are presenting themselves. A vote for John is a vote for Don will drive the moderates from National and the far right to ACT, National will tumble and may not have enough allies to form a Parliamentary majority.

The truce with the Maori Party will stand. That is important. It's a solid truce. The Maori Party and Mana Party should work together after the election, especially as a Brash-Key Government would move to end Maori Seats. The Maori Party, Mana Party, Greens and Labour Government sounds a lot less frightening as Monty Burns being Finance Minister.

Hone's new left Maori Party launches today

As I suggested on Backbenchers on TVNZ7 in November of last year, and despite the howls of some on the right and left who claimed it would never happen, Hone launches something special today.

You have to love the 'Hone Heke' transaction tax. That's gold.

Hone 'Heke' tax key to Mana party launchA financial transactions tax - nicknamed the Hone Heke tax - is among the policies being considered by Hone Harawira's political party to be launched in Auckland today.

The line-up of speakers at the launch of the party - to be called Mana - suggests its policies will be targeted at low-paid workers and Maori throughout the country, at the expense of the wealthy.

In a message to a unionist this week, Mr Harawira said Mana would be "anti-neoliberal, against monopoly capitalism, and against privatisation of the people's assets".

"The party and I will be pro-worker."

The strategy on taxes would be targeted at wealth such as capital gains taxes, death duties and asset taxes.

Citizen A - ONLINE NOW!

Citizen A this week with that awful Cameron Slater and editor of Scoop.co.nz, Selwyn Manning

Issue one: Brash launches an Auckland attack against Hide in most aggressive take over since Germany invaded Poland

Issue two: John Banks in Epsom? Why has God forsaken Epsom?

Issue three tonight: Metro Magazine has an outstanding investigative journalism story on allegations of SAS handing civilians over for torture. In the week we celebrated ANZAC Day, what are we doing in Afghanistan?

Rodney 'toxic damaged goods' Hide 2004-2011 RIP

A man who rammed legislation through to destroy Auckland and set up a bullshit Maori statutory board that is costing ratepayers millions.

A man who greenlighted the despicable David Garrett who turned out to be the largest political hypocrite this country has ever seen.

A man who bullied with sexist glee his only female MP.

A man who was described by the new leader of ACT as 'toxic' and 'damaged goods'.

A man who built his political career on perk busting, yet once inside the power he so desperately wanted went on a massive taxpayer funded overseas jaunt with his girlfriend.

RIP Rodney, the left are dancing on your political grave, and thank you for removing the pretense of moderation John Key has managed to hide behind now Brash has replaced you. The left are forever thankful.

A vote for John, is a vote for Don.

There is a special Citizen A 7.30pm tonight on Stratos TV Freeview 21 and Sky 89 to discuss Epsom.

The Brash-Key Government - a vote for John is a vote for Don

Now that Alan Gibbs took my advice and started his corporate coup within ACT to resurrect Brash into the new hope for the neoliberal right, we can see Brash's ambition unleashed.

The man who lied about knowing the exclusive brethren were funding him, the man who lied about 'Maaaaaaori get too much' the man who met neolioberal backers from the US to implement hard right policy in NZ, the hollow man who wants to make us a hollow country is back with vicious ambition.

Watching Brash on Breakfast this morning was chilling. Even though John is panicking and ruling Brash out overnight, the naked ambition of Brash was on display. He wants Finance Minister or Treasurer, and he intends to get it.

The pretense of moderation John Key has been allowed to cloak his policies with under his smile and wave political capital has been blown aside. A Brash-Key Government would whore this country off to the highest bidder, what wouldn't be gone by lunchtime under these two?

Would our nuclear free policy would be gone by morning tea?

NZers who voted Labour in 2005 and voted National in 2008 have to have a long look at what continuing to support Key would mean because a vote for National is a vote for ACT.

Citizen A - 7.30pm tonight

Citizen A - 7.30pm tonight Stratos Freeview 21 & Sky 89

Tune in to join Bomber and his revolving panel of bloggers and Auckland opinion shapers as they offer an up-to-date half hour review of the political media issues of the current week from a very Auckland perspective.

THIS WEEK: Editor of scoop.co.nz Selwyn Manning and that awful Cameron Slater...

Issue one: Brash launches an Auckland attack against Hide in most aggressive take over since Germany invaded Poland

Issue two: John Banks in Epsom? Why has God forsaken Epsom?

Issue three tonight: Metro Magazine has an outstanding investigative journalism story on allegations of SAS handing civilians over for torture. In the week we celebrated ANZAC Day, what are we doing in Afghanistan?

Bomber's Blog - The War on News - ONLINE NOW!

THE WAR ON NEWS: In this weeks political media crimes against reason kill zone

Music pirates need to be tackled with as much urgency as a Christchurch Earthquake

Coming to a movie theatre near you - a chilling post apocalyptic futuristic thriller: Joyc'e Run - where university students whose loans glow red attempt to out run Steven Joyce before his debt collectors can catch them

Gerry Brownlee has sold our oceans for some magic beans from Petrobras, can someone please tell Gerry that there are no such things as magic beans

It is a disgusting abomination of social policy that this Government are cutting Women's refuge by $700 000 to give the cash to Tariana Turia's pet project Whanau Ora. To claim the money is being taken to the frontline is a joke, there is no more front line than Women's refuge!

Currently Women's refuge is given $520 per client for just over 3000 short stay women spread amongst 45 refuges. Removing the cuts takes that amount down to a mere $251 per short stay victim of domestic violence.

In the stress of a recession, domestic violence spikes, this Government is cutting funds to the very frontlines that are screaming our for more resources. This offensive cut to public services comes as the Government hands over $34million to the yachting fraternity and joins a long list of corporate welfare bailouts.

Vast cutbacks to Womens Refuge, a billion to AMI, the things this Government considers nice to have and too big to fail should shame every thinking NZer.

Why Rodney Hide went down

My God the mainstream media and the National Party were so far out of the loop on this corporate takeover that they never saw it coming, only last week John Key was giving Rodney support in Epsom.

QUESTION: If Brash is the leader of ACT, why are Alan Gibbs fingerprints all over the murder weapon?

If Rodney was gone by lunchtime, will the nuclear free policy be gone before morning tea? At least the possibility of a Brash-Key Government will shake the Shire Volk from their sleepy hobbit smile and wave pacification.

Finally an election worth getting excited over, a far right Brash-Key Government would allow the Hollow Men to transform us into a Hollow NZ.

Hide capitulates

If you can't beat 'em - join 'em, eh. Rodney has resigned as leader. He was shrewd enough to have himself named personally in Act's agreement with the Nat's so he can't be removed as easily as a caucus vote. So it's business as usual for him. [Some media are speculating Rodney will not stand in Epsom or that he won't be deputy leader of Act. I don't think he's built that machine up, and offed Richard Prebble, and got into bed with his arch nemisis Roger Douglas, just to end up resigning everything. That's not Rodney Hide. He will stay on in Epsom, surely. And will plot to return as leader. Brash is 93 isn't he?] And now someone else can take the blame/credit of leading the country's foremost right wing party into this particular campaign.I heard that old duffer, Don Brash, on the radio this morning trying to talk up his bizarre extra mural leadership coup of the Act party. He hadn't quite got around to resigning from National... or joining Act though. Who does this? How desperate would the party be to accept this? He said he was still waiting on (what I presume is David Farrar's) opinion polling on whether Rodney or Don would best lead the Act party. It's not as if Brash is going to commission anything that would say anything other than his leadership is vital, so it's obvious how that exercise will turn out. Brash had given another optimistic account of his leadership bid including a reference to "when I rolled Bill English" on Cambpell Live last night and I remembered how Don was prone to these beautiful moments where he just blithely says exactly what he thinks. I hope there are many more.

Rodney's survival instincts are still intact even if his leadership has been ceded to an outsider. The caucus - the other four - see their survival more likely with Don than with Rodney (facing possible defeat in his seat and therefore ending their careers). The inner Act organisation will be pleased to have Don Brash as its new/old poster boy, but the way in which it has played out and will play out will be met with ambivalence and skepticism from the Actoids centred around Rodney's party machine bastion based in Epsom - they will still control the party while Brash remains outside. Brash will attract big money, some big names and hopefully for them a bigger vote - above 5%. Any threat from the right to run a candidate - "Reform" or otherwise - against Rodney is short-circuited so I guess Rodney has bought some relief. What a maneouvre! If Brash runs for somewhere logical like Tamaki or North Shore then the dynamic will change if he should become an electorate MP.

As a trick - a gimmick, a campaign salvo, it's more dramatic than Roger Douglas' political resurrection in 2008. Douglas' reappearance lifted the Act vote - no doubt about it. Brash will likely have a similar impact, probably greater than just 2%. But one wonders how his role as Act leader will work out when he goes head-to-head with the other leaders esp. John Key. Brash's negatives like age and ideological rigidity will paint Key as young and moderate in comparison.

National will be comfortable with this new arrangement, they have lost only a single party member: Don Brash. This isn't a party schism and they won't figure on losing any more than a few members (back) to Act. As a lifeline to keep Act's slither of the vote on the radar - and to keep the Tories on the right side of 50% in the House it is, what it is - Brash. In fact it's beyond Brash - it's audacious. Brash can hardly believe it either, can he. It's an eternal twighlight Christmas for Don. One minute he's Rodney's bestest friend, taking a Crown hand-out consultancy on this 2025 gig - ironically just the sort of wasteful government/bureacratic patronage that Act and Rodney in particular used to bitterly complain of when in opposition - and then the next minute he's Rodney's newest bestest friend taking an Act Party hand-out consultancy on this election gig.

It's not as if Don will have to change any policy position to fit in. He's more Act than National - partly why he lost the 2005 election.

And what happens if Brash actually manages to get in? To get over 5%? To take out an electorate? If even the Labour Party seem resigned to a National-led government later in the year - and with their Maori Party partner imploding - Act may be the only option on the table. And it could be take it or leave it and it could get Act a lot of say. The hue of the beam that Act creates from the executive prism across social assistance and policy will be all the more dark. They may even be in a position to demand a chunk of the cabinet... who knows how much effect this will have? Mass redundancies and massive cuts to social services to keep the government spending within Don's red lines in Year One just to start. Year Two - now you're talking real pain. Don didn't flinch once when he pushed unemployment (and interest rates) through the roof in order to get the inflation figure to ≤2%. That was Don's single by-all-means-necessary target as Reserve Bank Governor, what will his similarly fanatical target be as Treasurer/Finance Minister in the next ministry? "Balance the budget"?

Alternating bands of the radical and conservative elements within Act (and within their new intake) will coat the National leviathan in very sharp scales.

John Key licks Queens Corgy in royal wedding wankfest

The wankfest that is the Royal wedding is about to commit wall to wall media genocide this week. In the endless updates about what a parasitic taxpayer funded piss up gets you these days, a moment of sheer girlish delight was revealled when the chuffed and grinning John Key excitedly giggled that he had been licked by one of the Queen's corgis during lunch with the grand old duck herself.

Maybe I'm a tad cynical, but I'm not sure that what we need at a time when we are collectively balls deep in one of the worst recessions with a political far right corporate coup underway is media distraction by some class based romanticism and a geeky Key blushing because the Queens bitch licked him.

$34 million for yachting fraternity 'nice to have'

The Government have handed the yachting fraternity of NZ $34million in more taxpayer money for them to play their little rich boys Americas' Cup game. Apparently funding Yachting, a sector not known for their poverty, $34million in public funds is defendable because Labour signed up to it before the stock market collapsed in 2008. Compare the $33.6 million that funded 35 arts organizations, 504 arts projects and 2418 community arts programs in 2010 and that $34 million dollar money shot all over the rich faces of the NZ yachting fraternity in the middle of the worst recession since the depression starts to look like another interesting definition of what this Government deems 'nice to have'.

Talking of 'nice to have', John Key has been regularly using the NZ Air Force as a personal taxi service to run him errands around the country seem to suggest John's nice to have list goes beyond 34 luxury BMWs.

Helen Clark had her speeding limo, John Key now has his Air Farce One.

The RNZAF isn't a glorified public transport service for the Prime Minister, by using them to pick him up from the V8s he's showing he's about as out of touch with reality as Rodney is in Epsom. What emergency event occurred for the PM to be picked up and dropped off by the Air Force? Was a comet on a collusion path with earth? Had a terrorist threatened a nuclear device against Wellington? Was Murray McCully thinking aloud at a media event? John Key had the New Zealand Air Force pick him up from the V8's so that he could get to a black tie dinner at the Royal Auckland Golf Club in Otahuhu where the club was celebrating its royal status. Brothers and sisters, maybe in John Key's world being late for a black tie dinner at a Royal Golf Club is an emergency, but to the rest of us its just another example of his, 'you do with less i take more' born to rule double standards.

The smile and wave smirking face of austerity Toryism never looked so crass.

Replacing the Washington Consensus with the Beijing Consensus against our consent

It's been a long week of media massaging of NZ in preparation for our new Chinese overlords. The NZ Herald did endless story after endless story of how we all need to suck up to China and Dame Jenny Shipley who chairs the 'we are the Tibet of the Pacific' friendly association, took time away from clubbing baby seal pups to death with her bare hands and made a rare appearance on TVNZ's Q+A where she made soothing dulcet carbon-monoxide tones that we all need to allow ourselves to drift into a deep sleep we'll never awake from. All of this of course while one of the largest Chinese energy companies is in the South Island cutting deals to buy vast amounts of lignite and Solid Energy.

That softening up however has taken a bit of a blow in the wake of China arresting artists, bloggers and bizarrely deciding to arrest Christians for worshipping during Easter? I don't wish to nitpick, but isn't an intrinsic part of being a Christian the ritualistic worship of their religious holidays at certain times of the year, and that by denying them the ability to worship on Easter, Chine is effectively just arresting people for being Christian. Isn't that a little bit totalitarian?

Forgive me but are we all seriously considering falling under a new Beijing Consensus to replace the Washington Consensus that none of us gave our consent to? Do we really want a country that arrests Christians, artists and bloggers to have more influence on our economy?

Other than the Dark Lords of the Sith and the House of Slitherin, who on earth do bloggers, artists and Christians going to Church on easter threaten?

The splintering of the political spectrum

It wasn't until the middle of the 1930's that the full social impact of the 1929 Wall St crash was felt with the Great Depression. Our Great Recession has had Governments swallow the corporate debt with the real risk that those countries could collapse, so much for unregulated neo liberal free market greed (if you want an idea of how corrupt this neo liberal free market was, watch the doco 'Inside Job'.

It was during the 1930's that the political establishment came under great pressure. When economic conditions are this bad, the spectrum splinters, this is a meme I've been pointing out for some time, we are seeing a splintering of the political spectrum. Hone to the left of us, Don to the right of us, the reality is that there is no middle ground in NZ politics any longer because we have a vast distance between John Key's wealth class elites and the 40% of NZ who earn less than $20 000.

I wonder of there will be a riot in Queen St this year during the Rugby World Cup?

Left wing political pundit Matt McCarten has been lined up as party president and ex-Green MP Sue Bradford and lawyer Annette Sykes are on the list of potential candidates he hopes to woo, Newstalk ZB reports.

The party has yet to decide how many seats it will contest, or whether it will concentrate on his seat and winning party vote, Mr Harawira said.

He said the Mana Party moniker would not last and a permanent name would be decided in a competition.

As I called in in November of last year on TVNZ7's Backbenchers, if Sue is on board, the broader appeal new left Maori party is up and running.

With a broader appeal party, Hone could bring in the extra seats to change the Parliamentary math in a down to the wire election. With a Brash Key Government looming, there's never been a better time to be active.

Cough, cough. For the detractors who detracted, it's hat eating time.

Would Cactus Kate, Whaleoil, Heine and Chris Trotter like some tomato sauce with their hats?

NZ doesn't torture - Shhhh freedom tickles

PM rules out inquiry into SAS torture reportsPrime Minister John Key has ruled out an inquiry into reports the SAS handed over detainees who were later tortured. The Green Party has demanded an investigation after reports terror suspects were tortured in 2002 and 2010 after being handed over to Afghan and US forces, but Mr Key said he ''hadn't seen any evidence to support the need for an inquiry''. He would have some discussions with Defence Minister Wayne Mapp when he returned to New Zealand next week. ''I see nothing that has indicated to me that New Zealanders have done anything other than what we would expect them to do and to have acted in line with both the Geneva Convention and the signed protocols that we have as part of the operation in Afghanistan.'' He added: ''I'm totally confident New Zealanders have acted in line with that convention. When people have been under New Zealand care they've be treated properly.''

Metro magazine published details of two incidents from 2010 where detainees were handed over to Afghan forces and another in 2002 where around 55 people were handed over to United States troops. According to the article many of those handed over were subsequently tortured.

Oh for the love of God Mr Key! We are talking about the laws of war! There are laws in war for a bloody good reason, and these reasons have been built up over centuries of philosophy about why we have rules in war! This is the Geneva Convention we are talking about John, it's not some formality at head office and we have clearly gone over the mark here, and serious questions raised in the Metro article that our soon to be declared Governor General may have misled our politicians.

It is EXACTLY in the political arena that such debate should occur! We are all responsible for this, our taxes pay for this war.

Our democracy has a proud history of pacifists and people prepared to go to prison as conscientious objectors, such an ethical stance has as much political legitimacy as John Key's meaningless strategy in Afghanistan.

Our safety is NOT paramount, the safety of Afghan civilians is paramount, and if we are merely enabling torture while propping up a corrupt regime in a war we are losing in a country with a history of devouring armies, then I would humbly suggest Mr Key that your position has no legitimacy whatsoever.

Well done Metro, this is the first copy of the magazine I have purchased in about a decade, if you continue to print such brilliant investigative journalism, I'll continue to buy your magazine!

So if everyone is over the let's-do-business-with-China shuffle, isn't it time to ask some hard questions about their human rights record in the light of mass arrests of Christians for merely worshipping on Easter?

China detains Protestant Shouwang devoteesAt least 20 Chinese Protestants have been detained as they tried to gather for an Easter service in Beijing. The worshippers, from the Shouwang church, were trying to hold an outdoor service because they are prevented from using their own premises.Police have recently arrested dozens of people from the church. The authorities have also been carrying out a wider suppression of dissent - harassing foreign reporters and detaining lawyers and activists.

I'm sorry Jenny? What were you saying mate? How we need to just do business with a regime that arrests artists and Christians? Speak up, you are the chairperson of the selling NZ to China committee, just run past us the whole justification for giving a totalitarian regime more influence in our country again?

A Key and Brash Government

Let me lead or I'll bleed you dry, Brash tells ActDon Brash will have a clear message for the Act board on Saturday: if his offer of leadership is rejected, his new party will potentially bleed the Act Party dry of any votes it has left. The former National Party leader has commissioned a nationwide poll to gauge the level of support for him as leader of Act versus Act under incumbent leader Rodney Hide.

John Key holds Government because his ill defined 'change' mantra was sold as Labour lite and was unthreatening to the mainstream. He has put in three years of smile and wave to earn the electorates trust to push through hard right policy if he wins this year, it's been a strategy that has kept the Shire Volk sleepy and cuddly without spooking too many of them so that the hard right elements of National can relax and start licking their lips as the privatization agenda quietly looms.

Don Brash is throwing the carefully constructed pretense of moderation John Keys spin drs have concocted out with the bathwater. By threatening ACT he has won the leadership, and for the rest of NZ, the left have finally got a reason to stop being apathetic.

Here is what the Hollow Men showed us was Don Brash Cosby/Textor spin lines from the October 19th 2004 meeting...

1: Stop us going down the path to rampant political correctness.2: Put an end to the grievance industry.3: Make our community safer by locking away violent criminals.4: Ensure your hard-earned tax dollars are spent on Education and Health and not wasted on Labour’s pet projects and bureaucracy.5: Put in place economic policies that will lift all our incomes closer to those of Australians.6: Tighten up Welfare and ensure that everyone that can work does work.

...note, none of this is policy, just focus meeting tested bigotry and with Don 'Maaaaaaaaaari get too much' Brash leading a corporate putsch in ACT, a Key-Brash Government is enough to make those who voted Labour in 2005, National in 2008 to question voting National again.

It also makes any attempt by the Maori Party to cut a deal while our political equivalent of Monty Burns is a coalition partner as likely as Steven Joyce openly dating Taraina Turia.

The Hollow Men tells us that National under Don Brash knew who the donors in anonymous trusts were and were aware of secret funding campaigns by religious fanatics while having a plan of denial ready if that information ever saw the light of day. There were also a small bunch of rich right wing ideologues with links to America's far right who were creating secret agendas for Don Brash and let's not forget the out right lies and deceit used to hide this “secret right wing agenda” (their words not mine). What about the Maaaaaori get too much racially divisive racist crap where National KNEW what they were saying was bullshit and concocted a story to throw the media off the scent when that bullshit was detected?

Monday, April 25, 2011

Lest We Remember

For me, ANZAC Day is a day that civil society pauses and remembers those who have sacrificed their lives in the name of our country. It is a commemoration of our wars and a solemn occasion when the current generation promise the next generation that we will never throw their lives away as wastefully as we have in the past. Our history is littered with wars that were ill defined and devoured some of our best and brightest. We respect the glorious dead by promising not to needlessly fill the graves next to them with more wasted life.

For the last decade, ANZAC Day has been a farce to the respect of our glorious dead. Our involvement in an immoral war to prop up a corrupt regime in Afghanistan while we actively hand over Afghan civilians to torture units means we have ignored the lessons of the past and are now inflicting the very terror we proclaim we are fighting. How do we know the people the SAS attacked and killed in their revenge attack that's just been made public were the ones responsible for the death of a NZ soldier? A court decides guilt, are we now saying the SAS are a Court unto themselves who can decide who is guilty and who is not and kill both accordingly? When you are against war, it is because war makes good people do bad things.

When you dance with the devil, the devil doesn't change, you do.

Watching Wayne Mapp declare on Q+A yesterday that we are in Afghanistan because 7 NZers have died from terrorism in 10 years is the most intellectually bankrupt defense of this immoral war I've ever heard. Our threshold for occupation of Afghanistan is 7 dead citizens over a decade? Why the hell aren't we bombing KFC stores for double down burgers? Heart disease in a decade would kill hundreds of thousands of NZers, our justification for a war is less than one dead citizen per year?

Our presence and continued interference in Afghanistan is creating the terrorism, we have become the tyranny we are claiming to fight.

The Gunner's Lament

A Maori gunner lay dyingIn a paddyfield north of Saigon,And he said to his pakeha cobber,"I reckon I've had it, man!

'And if I could fly like a birdTo my old granny's whareA truck and a winch would never dragMe back to the Army.

'A coat and a cap and a well-paid jobLooked better than shovelling metal,And they told me that Te RauparahaWould have fought in the Vietnam battle.

'On my last leave the town swung roundLike a bucket full of eels.The girls liked the uniformAnd I liked the girls.

'Like a bullock to the abattoirsIn the name of libertyThey flew me with a hangoverAcross the Tasman Sea,

'And what I found in VietnamWas mud and blood and fire,With the Yanks and the Reds taking turnsAt murdering the poor.

'And I saw the reason for itIn a Viet Cong's blazing eyes -We fought for the crops of kumaraAnd they are fighting for the rice.

'So go tell my sweetheartTo get another boyWho'll cuddle her and marry herAnd laugh when the bugles blow,

'And tell my youngest brotherHe can have my shotgunTo fire at the ducks on the big lagoon,But not to aim it at a man,

'And tell my granny to wear blackAnd carry a willow leaf,Because the kid she kept from the coldHas eaten a dead man's loaf.

'And go and tell Keith HolyoakeSitting in Wellington,However long he scrubs his handsHe'll never get them clean.'

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Q+A, The Nation Review

Last weeks ratingsQ+A 219, 590The Nation 112 480. The Nation would be pretty happy with those ratings.

The NationAfter a couple of weeks complaining about not being sent anything by TV 3 for The Nation (as opposed to TVNZ who give me updates every two days) , the producer at The Nation got in touch with me directly and sent them to me, that's nice. It's good to know bitching can get results. So this week Duncan will be following the latest developments in the SAS Afghanistan story, Sean will be with Gerald Hensley and Glynn Harper on how World War II defined and changed New Zealand politics and Daryll Hutchison reports on how parent power is changing our secondary schools.

The big story is our SAS troops committing revenge killings and being part of torture in Afghanistan, isn't it lovely to fight for a corrupt Government in an ill defined war while we are complicit in torture? Laugh it up NZ, laugh it up!

Good to finally get some focus on NZ committing war crimes. We are handing over prisoners to torture units in Afghanistan, isn't that great you stupid little Hobbits? Isn't it disgusting that NZ is involved in torture? How do we win for democracy and freedom when we use war crimes and torture to fight it? The Metro Editor and Keith Locke are on putting the boot into the Government.

It is disgusting that NZ is involved in such evil.

There is the compulsory story about ANZAC Day and how important it is for us to kill people for a sense of national identity. Why can't we look at the hypocrisy of commemorating the 'glorious' dead from yesteryear when we are deeply involved in torture in a current war? We've shown that we've learnt nothing!

Great story on State Schools. Western Springs comes out looking pretty good. The story is effectively about rich kids (mainly white) fleeing to rich schools. Rich people can normally keep poor people away from them by buying in wealthy areas, these schools allow those rich parents to keep those gates raised. If you want to pay for your kid to go to a private school, all power to you, that's not my beef, I'm pissed off that religious schools can take money from the Government! Auckland Grammar wanks on about its Cambridge wankery, the sooner John Morris gets hit by a bus the better NZ will be, I never liked him at Orewa College. It seems the 'Grammar Zone' is being used simply to promote higher property prices and attract wealthy Asian parents.

The Nation do some of the best current affairs pre edited story's, and this was one of them. Intelligent and interesting.

Great to see Brian Edwards on the panel.

Q+AThe Panel is Dr Jon Johansson, Unite Union leader Matt McCarten and God friend Glyn Carpenter. Don Brash is on live, and its more on the disgusting story that NZ forces are handing civilians over to torture unit.

Guy's interview with Mapp is brilliant. He asks what the sacrifice of life means on ANZAC Day. Whatever his answer is it will be thrown back at him when the torture issue gets raised. He claims there is progress, yet as Guyon points out, it is still dangerous and we are sending bloody tanks there! Mapp claims we have LAVs there because the roads have been 'progressively improved'??? The second Guyon starts asking about specific dates, Mapp sits up. It turns out we are involved in a revenge killing after an attack on a NZ soldier. How do we know the people they attacked and killed were the ones responsible? A court decides guilt, are we now saying the SAS are a Court unto themselves who can decide who is guilty and who is not and kill both accordingly? When you are against war, it is because war makes good people do evil things.

Guyon moves onto the torture allegations. Jon Stevenson's piece in Metro is the kick off for Mapp's face to getting pale. He is worried. NZers are not going to like knowing their soldiers are handing people over for torture. He DARES claim we are in Afghanistan to stop terrorism at the end of the debate.

The panel lay into our despicable role in Afghanistan. This story has potential to flare up.

Nice bit of religious chat between Christians and Muslims. Both are intelligent with interesting views on religion and its use of violence. It was decided that Politics and religion need to stay 50 meters away from each other.

The panel rumble over religion and politics. Guyon asks Matt why Christians have never formed their own political party, he quips it is because their leader is in prison for paedophilia.

Q+A have become very clever in having a big interview at the end of the hour, this week it's Don Brash, never before have so many ACT Party supporters sat through a discussion about God.

Monty Burns look a like Don Brash is back, he wants the ACT Party leadership. He hasn't spoken to other Caucus members??? This looks like a fly on the hoof putsch, the horses have spooked and the impatience of ACT's ideologues means its Rodney to the sword time.

To those who made 2008 one of the lowest voter turn outs on record by not voting, you now have a reason to drop the apathy. Don is THAT crazy he makes going out to vote once every 3 years over staying at home stoned on the couch a worthwhile proposition.

Guyon points out that Key wouldn't want anything to do with Don, Don says he is a former National Party leader and as such, Key can't rule him out. Jaw dropping arrogance. Imagine a National Party/ACT with Don Brash Government??? Sweet Jesus Phil Goff will be singing and clapping all day.

Brash replacing Hide greatest reshuffle since the deck chairs on the Titanic

Replacing Rodney Hide with Don Brash as a solution to ACT's meltdown is like repainting the Fukushima nuclear powerplant with lead based paint and hoping that works. The Monty Burns of NZ politics is more electorally palatable than the Oompa Loompa of Hate?

National strategists will be bashing their heads against walls. No one rallies the worst fears of neo liberal madness run amok than Brash, his dirty manipulations during the Hollow Men and his casual racism combined with a wide eyed acolyte view of free market economics is about as welcome to the NZ masses as a malignant tumor.

Imagine a National Party in conjunction with a Don Brash ACT embarking on a privatization agenda that would make Roger Douglas blush.

If you were feeling apathetic about politics before, this is the firecracker to wake you up.

Just imagine what a National/ACT Party led by Don Brash would privatize if they won the 2011 election?

I think a lot of NZers who voted Labour in 2005 and voted National in 2008 need to take a good long hard look at the kind of society a Key-Brash Government could create if they won and start considering their support for smile and wave politics. To those who made 2008 one of the lowest voter turn outs on record by not voting, you now have a reason to drop the apathy.

Don is THAT crazy he makes going out to vote once every 3 years over staying at home stoned on the couch a worthwhile proposition.

Victims rights not Victims wrongs

More say for victims proposedVictims will be able to have more of a say in court and will be told when offenders are granted bail or breach release conditions, under new Government measures announced today.

I am glad that victims of crime will be able to express in their own raw words how the experience of being wronged by someone found guilty of their crime has impacted them. It is right and proper that they have the full expanse of their expression on record, it is important for the victim, it is important to the offender, it is important to our sense of collective justice that such expression is uncensored.

In the attempt to sterilize the Court room into the pure realm of objective law, rules limiting the vernacular of those aggrieved for the dignity of those found guilty doesn't sit well with our sense of justice. Those done wrong should be able to tell the guilty exactly how they feel about how they've been hurt by their actions. Such interaction satisfies our collective sense of fairness, indeed the support offered to victims of crime I think should expand to their welfare as well.

We should enable victims of crime to appear during the Court process by covering their transport costs as well as better access to publicly funded counselling. I think victims of crime deserve our compassion, sympathy and support, but to allow the fear and anger victims of crime feel to set the tone of public and political debate over punishment is the utterly wrong influence to decide public policy by.

Anger and fear tend to lead to hate and hate as a social policy is not something most progressive democracy's tend to strive for.

Our righteous anger at crime has been whipped up by talkback reactionary Sensible Sentencing lynch mobs feed by a ‘if-it-bleeds-it-leads’ ratings addicted media creating a level of public debate on punishment that foams and brays with such hatred that it has warped public policy to levels that make NZ one of the most imprisoned societies on the planet.

There are repercussions to anger and hatred as public policy, and those ramifications are a prison system so under stress that violence and corruption have become the everyday and rehabilitation has been completely ignored so much so that the human beings who have served their time are now so damaged that they decompress with disastrous results on an unsuspecting and frightened public.

National has malformed this abomination even further by privatizing prisons, beside the ideological argument that the democratic state should be the only power that can hold you against your will as opposed to a corporation, this change of power structure makes profit the motivating factor as opposed to rehabilitation, more prisoners in more prisons for longer becomes the strategy for private prisons and it sees them get involved in public debate pushing for harder sentences by using victims pain and anguish to sell what becomes a very vested self interest.

Victims have the right to be treated with respect by our Justice system and we should endeavour for their voices to be heard, but to allow public policy to be warped by our anger and fear which is politically manipulated to appeal to our lesser angels for a corporate prison industry with no wider societal imperative other than to make a profit by imprisoning more and more New Zealanders, is not the answer.

The John Key Shire Volk Blues: We don't know how sucky we are

Whanau, we face the steepest economic recession since the depression. We know from the social carnage caused during the economic turmoil of the 80s and 90s that it is our societies most vulnerable that bear the brunt of such change. We should never forget as we look to relegate community safety nets to 'nice to haves', that our suicide rate trebled to the shameful OECD levels they are today during the last great pruning of the State.

All publicly funded sectors are eyeing the forthcoming zero budget with concern as what is needed in all sectors as they tackle an ever growing tide of demand, is not austerity, it is social re-investment.

It is difficult to reconcile the growing list of corporate welfare with continued cutbacks to public welfare. I've never fully understood why the most vulnerable in society are asked to do with less for an economic crises they had no hand whatsoever in causing.

How many solo mothers were on the phone to their Wall St stock brokers in 2007 buying sweet light crude in Euros while speculating on Goldman Sachs derivatives?

In 2008 NZers threw out Helen Clark because she was leading the stormtroopers of the Nanny State dykeocracy into your homes to force you into using water saving showerheads and power saving lightbulbs, yet this Government strips away our right to Jury trials, passes laws making you guilty before innocent and slashes public welfare while handing out corporate welfare and not a whisper.

If Labour had pulled half the crap National do weekly, the NZ Herald would be printing molotov cocktail recipes alongside the addresses of Cabinet Ministers.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Citizen A - 7.30pm tonight

Citizen A - 7.30pm tonight Stratos Freeview 21 & Sky 89

Tune in to join Bomber and his revolving panel of bloggers and Auckland opinion shapers as they offer an up-to-date half hour review of the political media issues of the current week from a very Auckland perspective.

THIS WEEK: Blogger Phoebe Fletcher and that awful Cameron Slater...

Issue one: Hang on, help is on its way - John Key sings a different tune over helping Rodney in Epsom

Issue two: Steven Joyce finds ways to make life tough for students, but should we be making life more difficult and since when did education get downgraded to 'nice to have'.

Issue three: When the NZ Herald attacks the Government, you know something must be terribly wrong - why all the misuse of urgency under National?

Thursday, April 21, 2011

When intense economic conditions kill off people’s belief in democratic capitalism, they turn to other forms of legitimacy. We saw the rise of fascism and communism in the 30s due in part to the crushing impact of crippling economic conditions.

At 1pm on October 24th 1929, the vice president of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney marched onto the stock exchange floor after a morning of devastating losses and purchased well over the sale price in front of everyone $20million dollars worth of US. Steel stock. He then went on to purchase General Electric, AT&T and other blue chip stocks spending $130million. His move funded by the wealthiest elites at the time was an attempt to insert confidence into a financial system on the verge of collapse. It worked. Until Monday 28th of October, four days later.

Ben Bernanke is a modern day Richard Whitney, the second the stimulus money dries up, the economy will crash again, or the economy will crash due to the immense inflationary stress from printing all that cash, the writing is on the wall and everyone seems to be in some type of delusion about it. What interests me is where the pressure will blow inside communities. Globalization protesters and environmental protesters will be one pressure point that will get increasingly radical as their middle class knowledge base gets angrier and angrier, but that’s the educated. Those not so bright will rush to the old scars, look at the rise of the BNP in Britain and the NZ connections on the BNP politician list, a couple of quiet unassuming NZers living here in NZ...

Three Kiwis on far-right party's listA detailed membership list for the far-right British National Party has been leaked, revealing that the white supremacist party's influence reaches as far as New Zealand. The list, which contains 16,000 names, many with contact details, was published on the website Wikileaks. Three New Zealanders appeared on the list.

...and look at how the fascist movement in NZ are attempting to currently sow the seeds of hate this month...

Stop The Asian InvasionAnyone wanting to be part of a Nation Wide 'Stop the Asian Invasion' Campaign are welcome to Email us on rwrnz@hotmail.com. This will also put you on the emailing list. We are currently in the preparation stage. Looking at mass mail drops and poster runs around New Zealand. This will be happening in about a months time, around the end of April. We will be printing T-shirts for this act of resistance. Time to step up and show that we are NOT happy with what these lefty do-gooders and money hungry government power mongers are doing to us. We must resist this Invasion of our Country that will end with us being worker slaves to foreign owned companies, many of whom are Asians. If we want to stay free, we have to do something!!

...let's hope they are just a bunch of angry skinny white kids who all desperately need a joint, but if I was America wanting to destabilize a Washington Consensus country away from China's sphere of influence, well resourced xenophobic racist pro white provocateurs would be the cheapest and most reliable method.

We can see how the Government is preparing for the social malaise from economic collapse: vast new surveillance powers for every state department, the ability to take your DNA on mere arrest, the increasing prison population, the need to privatize it to keep feeding people into prison, the streamlining of the Court system so that you are judged and sentenced via remote, the broadening of what can be defined as ‘a gang’ (it’s 3 people) which then triggers surveillance powers and the ability to seize and freeze your assets.

As the global economy wrestles to deal with States who took on corporate debt now starting to wobble under that weight and the current cures causing talk of a credit down grade in the US, we have a Government rapidly and quietly increasing it's Police powers with little or no over sight while right wing paramilitary groups start active recruitment drives.

The challenge for liberal progressives will be to fight these forces on all fronts to protect the civil rights and freedoms we have fought so long and hard for. That fight gets harder and harder as economic uncertainty caused by unregulated casino shock capitalism decimates communities.

This period of pause is merely the time delay between the earthquake and the tsunami about to hit us.

High fliers

Talk about aloof. He's so aloof, he's aloft, more often than not. Floating in helicopters above the jandal-wearing Hobbiton peasants and off to state engagements where his presence is demanded. Important functions, like drinks at the golf club:

A spokesman for Mr Key said the decision to use the helicopter was made because of concerns about traffic issues at the V8s which may have meant Mr Key would have been late for his next appointment - a black tie dinner at the Royal Auckland Golf Club in Otahuhu where the club was celebrating getting its royal status.

Mr Key's office says it would have been unacceptable for him to be late as the Governor-General was also attending and protocol requires the Prime Minister cannot arrive later than the Queen's representative.

Well why not instruct the G-G beforehand that he's running a bit late and to hang back for an hour or so at Government House so he can arrive later? As if! Not if you have the RNZAF at your disposal, eh. Maybe Anne Tolley's infamous misunderstanding of what the term "helicopter view" means (when she interpreted it literally) was just a reflection of how Key and his National government do business?

These helicopter jaunts will become to John Key what the speeding limo was to Helen Clark. Just as National's portrayal of Clark's personality and management as detached and brusque, so Labour's "rich prick" framing of Key is gaining more and more credibility with the public as the evidence starts to stack up. To date Key has been let off lightly with the "smile and wave" criticism of the opposition parties. The grinning face of austerity Toryism will now be painted in darker colours - as the smirking out-of-touch PM, back-slapping the plutocratic elite and ignoring the common folk.

The reason this story has the traction to bite is because this is not the occasional and necessary use of defence resources in an emergency, it is so he can patronise his plutocratic mates at private soirées.

Mr Key has been criticised in the past for his use of Air Force helicopters. In 2009 he used two Iroquois to fly from Blenheim to Kaikoura, where he was launching a new Whale Watch boat.

Labour MP Pete Hodgson questioned the Prime Minister in the House in November in 2009 about his use of military aircraft.

Mr Key's response included the use of Air Force planes to visit the Pacific Islands, including Samoa after the tsunami, and an Iroquois flight from Auckland to the Coromandel Peninsula for the opening of the Whangamata Marina.

The Whale Watch launch I suppose will be a Maori enterprise, so he can't be accused of racial favouratism, but let's call these junkets out for what they are: the PM has used the Air Force to celebrate with the Pakeha elite their confiscation and privatisation of the foreshore and seabed at Whangamata and to celebrate with the Auckland Pakeha elite their cringe-worthy retrogressive monarchism.

National are dismantling your legal rights

Simon Power stood down last week from his role as Minister of State owned Enterprises because of a conflict of interest. Whanau, far be it for me to suggest the mainstream media are a lazy stupid one eyed mutant who slavishly carry out the whims of its corporate masters, kinda like smeagle minus the charm, but shouldn't anyone question, what is the conflict of interest that is forcing Simon Power to hand in his Ministerial warrant?

He was the Minister for State Owned Enterprises, the very same State Owned Enterprises National intend to privatize if they win the next election, ladies and gentlemen, is the former Minister about to work for one of his previous assets that are about to be privatized?

Wouldn't that be like the corporate pimp becoming the corporate prostitute all at the expense of the public taxpaying John?

If there are conflicts of interest with his next job, and seeing as he has been privy as a Minister to the valuation of these State owned assets about to be sold, shouldn't we, the public know what his next job is now so that we can decide if there is a conflict of interest before the election?

Speaking of Simon, his conveyor belt of pet food grade cheap justice which degrades most of your civil liberties in the largest roll back of legal protections this country has ever witnessed looks like it is justice for only the very, very rich. To be eligible for legal aid now in this country, you need to earn $100 less per week than the minimum wage, meaning only part time workers and the unemployed could ever get legal aid.

Whanau, I know you all love John Key's smile and wave but robbing you all of vast legal civil liberties without a whisper is kinda like not bothering to pick your kids up at school, over sight at best, outright neglect at worst. How can we endorse a legal system minus the legal protection checks and balances that makes it a justice system all based on nothing more than gossip Dame Margaret Bazely heard behind the law society bike sheds?

These erosions of jury trials, passing law internet law that has you judged guilty before innocent and not facing your jury are a legal conveyor belt focused on speed rather than justice.

By denying people the right to select their lawyer from legal aid we erode their quality of justice, and let's not forget people have to pay legal aid back, this is money you are paying for a legal service yet you no longer get the right to select your lawyer?

No one wants to use the Public Defense service, so the Government are forcing people to use them. Think about that - you require legal aid, you are told it will mean a caveat is placed on your house oh and they will select the cheapest Public Defender they can track down from a service that doesn't receive any current confidence from citizens.

Funny how a free market Government is now suddenly focused on forcing everyone to use public services isn't it?

Only rich people have the audacity to force poor people to accept such limited legal protections.

If Labour had pulled this stunt, the right wing would be screaming, but they aren't, just like they are silent over John Key's disgusting misuse of urgency.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The rising tide

Hone Harawira had a hui at Whakatane last night. Half of Rotorua seemed to be there and that is a terminal indictment for Te Ururoa Flavell. If you can't hold your home turf you can't hold your seat.

People from all over the Waiariki electorate were there and most were Maori Party... ex-Maori Party. Only one said they would remain with the party - and that was out of loyalty rather than for their policy or performance. The disillusionment was deep and wide. The squeaks from Te Ururoa about a private members bill to have consultation with Iwi over drilling was universally dismissed as too little and too late.

Annette Sykes was in campaign mode at the hui and another articulate and staunch female lawyer, Dale from Whanau a Apanui, explained her Iwi's position and strategies to fight Petrobras. Both of these women gave great speeches and would make fine MPs and no doubt there are many others of similar calibre who will rally around whatever banner Hone will hoist at the end of the month. Buses are being organised to go to that hui in Auckland on the 30th. It is plain that he is running an organised proto-party unit already and that a movement has begun with a momentum set to peak at the right time.

As the Maori Party membership repay the caucus' betrayal of the kaupapa with a defection en masse to Hone's party it does suggest that holding to the non-aggression pact (between Hone and the caucus) will become untenable. In that case two major things will happen:Firstly the Maori electorates will all be in play - even Parekura's and Tariana's. The Maori electorates have a long history of movements sweeping the seats - often under the Pakeha media's radar; most recently the Maori Party and NZ First before them.Secondly the contest of the Maori seats and the prospect of winning at least two or three will mean the party vote is seen as not so important (like the Maori Party's party vote was in 2005 and 2008) and because of this emphasis the Pakeha element and contest of seats will not be a priority. This changes what the party will look like. If Hone sticks to not standing in the other Maori seats then a more Pakeha party will result and the party vote becomes all important.

I note that at the hui no mention was made of Sue Bradford or the issue of how to gain Pakeha support. Perhaps understandable given it was a marae setting and most of those involved are ex-Maori Party, but this is something that must be addressed if the movement is to incorporate tau iwi and lift the party vote. Hone can't just rely on the 1 - 2% taken off the Maori Party to bring in enough people to have any significant influence.

It is difficult to imagine Hone making a worse botch than what the caucus has done over the foreshore and seabed fiasco. As long as he keeps telling it like it is then he will be respected. And as long as the Maori Party keeping telling it how it ain't then they are doomed.

And they are doomed. The Maori party list their Achievements" on their website. Achievements? Mixed bag. Not actually that much if you exclude the biggest ticket item - Whanau Ora (a scheme that on paper looks good, but is still captured by Pakeha bureacracy and so cannot do what it was designed to do, as I understand). The next biggest ticket is the Community Max scheme and while it has soaked up some unemployed and put them to some use that has had its problems too - monopolisation of the funding in the latest rounds seems to be an issue now from what I've heard. Both projects may be for the chop if Bill English gets his way. This leaves the tokenistic flying a flag on the harbour bridge and getting the conditional sign up of the NZ government to the UN indigenous rights declaration as the other achievements. The rise in tobacco prices and the ETS are included as gains, but I'm not sure others would see those as achievements per se. So to the constitutional conversation that is promised to be launched soon is not nearly as important as the MMP referendum this year.

What they aren't mentioning of course are the losses. The Takutai Moana bill is the centrepiece of those losses, missed opportunities and fumbles. The inablilty to negotiate anything in the budget for their constituents leaves the Maori Party with no real identifiable wins beyond the few mentioned here. It doesn't seem anywhere near enough given the high expectations when they entered National's web, and seems next to nothing when compared to the bulldozing of policy that the similarly sized Act party under Rodney Hide has managed to extract from the Cabinet for his agenda.

The Maori Party staff in Wellington from what I've heard have lost some good people and from what I've seen coming out of the leaders' office they have also lost touch and direction. They don't know what to do. Now that Hone has left and the Takutai Moana Bill has resulted in mass desertions from the membership they are in deep trouble. Just look at their latest booklet if you need evidence of a drifting organisation without expertise:There's Hone still there for a start. So that's him out and 4 - not 5 - members. The carton arrived along with Te Ururoa and his roadkill of a roadshow in late February so it was already inaccurate when it was being released to the public.

Then there's the spelling mistakes - everywhere. On the back cover:In the headlines:How can a political organisation release unproofed crap like this? It's embarrassing. What do the members think who are supposed to distribute this illiteracy? Te Ururoa and Pita are educationalists FFS! This is indicative and symptomatic of poor process, communications and direction. Are the party organisers supposed to correct this shit or will it go straight in the bin? Like the party itself it is dos vedanya binsky for the whole lot.

Helen Clark's Nanny State Vs John Key's Daddy State

Music pirates need to be tackled with as much urgency as a Christchurch Earthquake

After only two years, National have used urgency 31% of the time, that's a lot of urgency. Urgency is supposed to be used if there is a glaring mistake in law, it allows Parliament to circumvent democratic process for an immediate emergency, it is not supposed to be used to ram any old bullshit the Government wants passed through at any time they think the public isn't paying attention, the way National did by tacking the copyright Infringing File Sharing Amendment Bill onto the back of legislation to deal with the Christchurch Earthquake that gave Gerry Brownlee the power of God.

Giving Gerry Brownlee responsibility for anything is in itself a moment to pause in horror, but tagging on powers to disconnect your internet in a setting where you are guilty until proven innocent all for the benefit of the movie and music industry is more self interested than John Key checking himself out naked in the mirror.

National Party MP Johnathan Young claimed we needed these new powers to cut you off from the internet within a setting where you are guilty until proven innocent all for the benefit of corporate music and corporate movies because the internet was like Skynet. You'll remember skynet, that was the fictional self thinking computer from the Terminator movie that declared war on human beings by launching a nuclear first strike against humanity.

So, we need to ram through law under a misuse of urgency where you can have your internet cut off in a setting where you are guilty until proven innocent all for the benefit of corporate movies and corporate music to prevent the Internet from becoming self aware and launching nuclear weapons against us do we? Whanau, I've heard some pretty crazy shit from the right wing to justify their vast erosion of our civil liberties, but to claim computers will become self aware and attack us unless we urgently pass legislation to stop people downloading the latest song by Britney Spears is a little like asking for anal sex on the first date. Sure you can ask, but we're both going to feel cheap and whorish afterwards.

Isn't it funny folks, in 2008 NZers threw out Helen Clarke because she was leading the stormtroopers of the Nanny State dykeocracy into your homes to force you into using water saving showerheads and power saving lightbulbs, yet this Government strips away your right to Jury trials, passes laws making you guilty before innocent and slashes public welfare while handing out corporate welfare and not a whisper.

Who knew that all National had to do to keep you Shire Volk stupid and uninformed was a whole lot of smiling and waving from an out of touch, medicatedly optimistic boy in a bubble multimillionaire.

Whanau, I'm not angry about the $2million plastic waka, at least there is some functionality for a venue shaped like a waka, what I'm pissed about is the $12 million blown on the bloody massive plastic rugby ball. What sort of resale value is on that monstrosity? With a plastic waka there's at least some reuse after the event, who is going to buy a $12million used plastic ball after the Rugby World Cup?

Isn't it interesting, $2million on a plastic waka has Heather Roy costing out surgery, $12 million on a bloody giant Rugby ball and no criticism whatsofucking ever.

By Heather's own figures where is her post about the 306 hip replacements, 186 hernia operations, 246 grommet operations and 696 cataract operations when the $12 million was blown on the big plastic rugby ball?

Our war for feminism in Afghanistan

Forgive me folks, but what's the excuse we are in Afghanistan this week? It was to find Osama Bin laden, then when we could n't find him it was to find Al Qaeda, then when it turned out there wasn't any of them left, it was the Taliban. They found us and have been giving us a hiding for about half a decade. This weeks excuse to occupy Afghanistan of course is for the women, that's right sisters, it's the first war for feminism.

Dear Labour Party - don't take the suicide pills yet, stop being spooked by cheap brainfart TV opinion polls that under represent large chunks of your support, stand your ground and politically argue for a better Government! NZ needs you in the debate!

How does Goff win? Easy - HE STICKS TO THE BLOODY ISSUES. Look in 6 months time the recession will be biting hardest, the realities of the privatization agenda alongside the public spending costs can't be hidden after the budget. National need 47% to govern alone, they got 45% last time. 45% is a political high tide mark for them in one of the lowest voter turn out elections. The 'change' mantra can't mask their policy, so if they get less than 45% who can they go into coalition with? If Rodney gets dumped, ACT are gone (even if he stays, he may only bring one person). Dunne could be rolled by Charles, that's a second coalition partner gone leaving the Maori Party who look increasingly likely to be fight a civil war against Hone leading to Labour winning split Maori electorate seats.